I'm not fussed as to venue. It'll need to be a weekend I'm not working, though (and hopefully I won't get conned into working like I was last time...). I generally go 2 weekends on, 2 weekends off. The next 2 Saturdays I have off are the 1st and 8th of March. Either of those days would be great for me.

As usual, I wish I could nominate my place for a venue, but there's just no communal area where the computers could be put.

Any more thoughts or developments here? I'm eager to get this happening, since our last two LANs have been so good. So I feel like nudging the planning process along (which is like herding cats when it comes to QLDFF...), so let's nail it down using the process we did for the first LAN.

Okay, awesome. Well, March 8 was mentioned earlier in the thread, how does that work for people? The next Saturday after that which works for me is March 29. How do people feel about those days? We need to get an idea of the turnout, so any of the usual suspects who don't bother to check this thread, expect a poking PM asking you. Not that you'll know to expect it, since you didn't check the thread...

Good point about the gaming focus, Goob. I'm definitely on board with this one. It's Serious Business Live, and although filesharing is serious business, it's not Serious Business, if you catch my drift. We've all gotten most of the stuff off of others that we want at the previous LAN, so I'm definitely going to be focusing on the gamings.

Question: what's the internet situation at your place, Goob? Do you have a router? If you do, it will make things much easier for all concerned, since not only will it allow the whole LAN net access (essential for Steam to work properly), but it will handle the work of dishing out IP adresses. If you don't have one, we'll have to look at buying one. Also, will your connection speed and download cap stand a bunch of us sharing the pipe for online play?

Lozza: Like I said, your old video card plus my old PC means you won't need to bother with your recalcitrant laptop. It'll be a cinch to set up.

TF2, Flatout and Worms I can get behind with much excitement. For something more deathmatchy, I have copies of Quake 3 and UT2004 to share around. UT is always great. A humans vs bots run through the Assault maps is a ton of fun.

Goob, if your modem has 4 ports, then yeah, it's a router. Fantastic. The setup is nice and simple. We hook all the computers up to one or more gigabit switches (which Zerebin and I can provide), then simply run one cable from there into your router. The router's DHCP server assigns IP addresses to all the connected machines, and that's literally all it takes. The whole LAN has internet access, and we're hooked up to a superfast gigabit network to keep things speedy for file transfers and local gaming. Piece of cake.

Don't be disheartened if you're "owned" for a bit - it takes a bit of time to learn all the characters and maps, and a lot, lot longer to master any of them.

But the nature of the game is so that you're taught as you play. Medics see who's needing their help, engineers have tabs on the status of their equipment, and so on.
And find a nice server where people take time to help you learn. So, avoid Game Arena.

As for the LAN, who's in the list without steam? And if you do, do you have TF2/HL2?
Just keeping in mind for myself what games can/can't be played by all.
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Anyone who doesn't have TF2 but wishes to imbibe the sweet, sweet nectar of Serious Business, the process is easy:

- Go to www.steampowered.com and download Steam.
- Create an account.
- Use your credit/debit card to purchase the Orange Box. (You could purchase TF2 on its own, but you'd be missing out on the other life-altering goodness that is Half-Life 2 and Portal.)
- Bodily drag your PC to Serious Business Live.
- Network that sucker.
- Let some kindly soul transfer the TF2/Orange Box game files over the network unto you, saving you from having to download anything.
- BRING THE NOISE.

Upon following these simple steps, the joy of Serious Business shall be yours to share in.